NEW DELHI, July 7: The United Front steering committee meeting slated for Tuesday to discuss the issue of hike in petroleum products prices has been yet again put off. According to United Front sources, no fresh date for the meeting has been thus far.

Indications are that the steering committee meeting on the petroleum price issue would now take place in August after the Congress plenary session is over.

While the ostensible reason for the postponement of the meeting is sought to be attributed to the absence of CPI(M) general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet, who is away in London, the real reason, sources say, is the crisis in the prime minister's party the Janata dal after it split with Bihar chief minister floating the Rashtriya Janata Dal.

Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral and his supporters are credited with the view that the Front steering committee meeting would definitely be hijacked by anti-Laloo forces, who would demand his resignation as Bihar chief mMinister in the wake of the CBI chargesheet on fodder scam.

While the left parties and a section of the Janata Dal have already made it a common cause, the issue of his resignation is bound to be raked up in a major way now that Laloo has split the party. The prime minister is in no position to change the course at this stage, UF sources said.The anti-Laloo mood in the official Dal camp was more rabid on Monday when railway minister Ram Vilas Paswan told reporters that Bihar was not a "private limited company" of Laloo Yadav.To exacerbate the anti-Laloo stance in the official Dal camp, two-dozen detractors of the Bihar chief minister met newly elected party president Sharad Yadav, civil aviation minister CM Ibrahim and Paswan, among others, to press for Laloo's dismissal as the chief minister.MLAs are in town and have sought a meeting with the prime minister as well to demand the chief minister's dismissal after he was chargesheeted in the fodder scam case.

The fallout of the development is that the much-awaited decision on the petroleum products price hike issue has once again been pushed into the backburner. Finance minister P Chidambaram had pinned much hope on Tuesday's meeting and had announced that the UF steering committee was committed to come out with a final decision.

According to sources close to Gujral realised the futility of calling any meeting on the controversial petroleum price issue in view of strong positions taken almost all non-JD parties. While the left parties and Front constituents like Samajwadi Party had openly come out against the move, seeking to blame the government for all the muddle it created on the oil pool account deficit. The Bharatiya Janata Party has blamed successive governments for the the oil pool account muddle.What really nailed the issue ultimately, however, is that the Congress too opposed the move to raise the prices of petroleum products without considering all the alternatives.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.